Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong

This sumptuous new book brings together some of the most priceless national treasures in China, housed in Beijing's royal palace complex, the Forbidden City, and collected by Emperor Qianlong. During his sixty-year reign, from 1736 to 1795, Qianlong not only managed what was then the richest empire in the world, but also amassed the largest collection of art known at that time in China. Providing an introduction to the life at the emperor's palaces, and offering a comprehensive view of imperial art during Qianlong's reign, Splendors of China's Forbidden City is the only work in any Western language devoted exclusively to the court arts of China in the mid-eighteenth century, their last golden age. Many of the objects depicted have never previously been published, and include paintings on canvas, silk and paper, sculptures, palace furnishings, musical instruments, ceremonial clothing, arms and armour, table services and jewellery. This book offers an unprecedented insight into one of the most glittering courts in world history.